Love it or (more often) hate it, poorly formulated and mindnumbingly trivial quizzes are an everyday feature of the Facebook world. This particular description of someone’s quiz result, I think, really takes the biscuit.

I just love the way it on the one hand purports to shed light on literary talent while suggesting that attention to grammatical correctness is as socially acceptable as B.O. Plus who the Dickenson is that author it mentions?

Whoever came up with this should be the very last person to be laughing about it, wright?

Students are full of lovely surprises with their interpretations of British culture. Here is a compilation of some of the choicest recent offerings (obviously without attribution, and condensed in a few places).

On British opposition to the idea of a channel tunnel:

“It would be an opportunity for ‘strange creatures’ to enter Britain.”

On political affiliation:

“The Labour Party is not particularly Communist-orientated these days.”

“The Tories get their votes from people who have an interest in the consistency of the actual order of things.”

On the changing profile of the Welsh language:

“Until the 1960s Welsh was only spoken by older people because it had been forbidden to speak.”

On Cornish pasties (as a possible early form of crossover cuisine?):

“[…] the calzone-like wraps that were eaten in the North by the miners”.

On the red rose as the symbol of Labour:

“Be careful: roses have crumbs and can hurt you (make sure you wear thick gloves if you are fuzzy).”